Has Lastings Milledge Figured It Out?

Like many of you, I've been paying a lot of attention to other stories of interest around the league. Let's face it, these last few months of watching the Mets have left a void that needs to be filled.

One of the more interesting stories has been the ups and downs of Lastings Milledge.

At one time he was slotted in as a Mets "can't miss star" of the future. He came up quickly, tried to make a splash with his play and his words, the fans treated him like a rock star, and he was promptly smashed down by his teammates for a number of reasons that included his brash and cocky attitude.

If Milledge was the proverbial nail that was sticking up, Billy Wagner and several other vets were willing hammers ready to smash him down.

He was then traded in a controversial move to the Nationals for Ryan Church and Brian Schneider, and his career took a decided turn south.

In a sub-par 2008, Milledge struck out 96 times in only 523 at-bats while putting up a 91 OPS+ and displaying more of the maturation issues that got him into trouble with the Mets.

After opening 2009 as the Nationals starting rightfielder, Milledge was sent to the minors just two weeks into the season after arriving late for a team meeting.

He was sent a very clear message. The Nats manager at the time, Manny Acta, damned Milledge with faint praise after the demotion:

"Lastings is going through what a lot of players go through, where they go down at times like this," he said. "We're still . . . I'm still a big fan of Lastings. I think Lastings is going be a good player. I told him on the message that I was pulling for him, and I'm anticipating him being up here again and making a contribution."

That contribution came in the form of a trade to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates acquired outfielder Lastings Milledge and reliever Joel Hanrahan for outfielder Nyjer Morgan and reliever Sean Burnett to the Nationals.

The trade was supposedly another one-sided deal in which the Pirates gave up too much for too little. Nyjer Morgan was an immediate hit with the Nationals, while Lastings was sent to AAA.

But then two things happened: Morgan went to the disabled list and Milledge was called up to Pittsburgh after blistering AAA pitching to the tune of a .333 batting average.

After being called up on July 31st, Milledge has continued to rake.

He has a .325 batting average and a 119 OPS+ in 33 games for Pittsburgh. Moreover, he's batting a gaudy .463 over the last 14 days.

Milledge himself credits his success with his own personal happiness.

"It really is a dream come true to play for the Pirates," Milledge said. "With growing up in Bradenton and the Pirates having held spring training there forever, I always thought it would be cool to play for them. I was hoping they would draft me out of high school and was disappointed when they didn't. So when I found out I got traded to the Pirates I was very excited. It's been a great experience so far being in this organization."

"I've done some things I'd take back but I'm a little older and wiser now," he said. "You also can't believe everything you hear or read about someone. Some of the things that have been put out there about me make it sound like I'm the worst guy in the world but that's not the case.

"I like to smile, have fun, and joke around with people. Some people think you're not allowed to do that in baseball. That's the way I've got to be, though. I play the game better when I'm relaxed and having fun."

Milledge's attitude has not been an issue since the Pirates acquired him, though, and he has seemed to assimilate well into his new organization.

"He's been a good teammate and he's worked very hard," Pirates manager John Russell said. "He's done everything we've asked."

So while the jury is very much still out on Lastings, I'm personally very happy to see him playing well. Milledge is a solid baseball talent with maturity issues, and I still believe the Mets should not have let him get away.

As to whether or not he's truly "figured it out", no one truly knows. That said, a strong finish to 2009 could lead to a very big 2010 for Lastings.

2009 Season Stats
SPLITS	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Season	41	148	14	43	8	0	2	15	9	34	4	4	.291	.342	.385	.727
Career	294	1021	120	273	48	5	27	127	72	211	32	17	.267	.330	.404	.734
Last 7 days	6	22	3	8	3	0	0	3	2	5	0	0	.364	.400	.500	.900
Projected	66	238	23	69	13	0	3	24	14	55	6	6	.291	.342	.385	.727

Bullpen Losses Piling Up

The Mets bullpen leads the national league in ERA, and they are tied with Seattle for second (the Red Sox lead the majors in this stat with a sterling 2.90 bullpen ERA).

They are also second in bullpen losses in the National League, and tied with Cleveland for second overall.

The blown saves are down from last year--the Mets currently have 9, which is tied for 13th in baseball--middle of the pack.

Now we all know that last year the team's Achilles heel was the blown save--the Mets converted only 60% of their save opportunities in 2008. That said, 2009 hasn't been all that much better. Even with Frankie Rodriguez and his magic closer's arm, the Mets have only converted 68% of their save opportunities.

Couple that with the losses, and are the Mets really better off as a whole when it comes to the bullpen?

It's very tough to take issue with most of these guys, especially Pedro Feliciano and Frankie Rodriguez--they have been superb.

Still, there have been issues, and it's troubling that the team has had so much difficulty putting teams away.

Take a look at the stats, and you see the three "leaders" in bullpen losses: Nationals, Mets and Pirates.

Realizing of course that half of the blame for those losses can be placed squarely on the offense, it's still troubling that at this early point in the season the Mets have lost 14 via the bullpen.

By way of comparison, the 2008 Mets had 28 bullpen losses. In 2007, the bullpen had only 21 losses. In 2006, which was, in my opinion, our last great bullpen, the Mets only had 15 losses via the relievers.

So while I don't place a huge amount of importance on this stat right now, it is something to keep in mind as we work through the toughest part of the schedule.

The team is on pace for a staggering 37 bullpen losses in 2009.

Should the pace remain the same, it will surely mean this team is headed for a season barely over .500.

The below stats compare the 2006 and 2009 Mets bullpens, and below that are the current 2009 National League bullpen stats:

Mets 2006 Bullpen
NAME	GP	GS	W	L	Sv	Hld	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	K/9	P/GS	WHIP	ERA
Aaron Heilman	74	0	4	5	0	27	87.0	73	35	5	28	73	7.55	0.0	1.16	3.62
Billy Wagner	70	0	3	2	40	0	72.1	59	18	7	21	94	11.70	0.0	1.11	2.24
Chad Bradford	70	0	4	2	2	10	62.0	59	20	1	13	45	6.53	0.0	1.16	2.90
P. Feliciano	64	0	7	2	0	10	60.1	56	14	4	20	54	8.06	0.0	1.26	2.09
D. Sanchez	49	0	5	1	0	14	55.1	43	16	3	24	44	7.16	0.0	1.21	2.60
Darren Oliver	45	0	4	1	0	3	81.0	70	31	13	21	60	6.67	0.0	1.12	3.44
R. Hernandez†	22	0	0	0	0	3	20.2	15	8	2	8	15	6.53	0.0	1.11	3.48
Heath Bell	22	0	0	0	0	0	37.0	51	21	6	11	35	8.51	0.0	1.68	5.11
G. Mota†	18	0	3	0	0	4	18.0	10	2	2	5	19	9.50	0.0	0.83	1.00
Jorge Julio†	18	0	1	2	1	0	21.1	21	12	4	10	33	13.92	0.0	1.45	5.06
Royce Ring	11	0	0	0	0	2	12.2	7	3	2	3	8	5.68	0.0	0.79	2.13
Henry Owens	3	0	0	0	0	0	4.0	4	4	0	4	2	4.50	0.0	2.00	9.00
B. Fortunato	2	0	1	0	0	0	3.0	7	9	2	2	0	0.00	0.0	3.00	27.00
B. Bannister	2	0	0	0	0	0	4.0	6	5	1	2	1	2.25	0.0	2.00	11.25
Philip Humber	2	0	0	0	0	0	2.0	0	0	0	1	2	9.00	0.0	0.50	0.00
Dave Williams†	1	0	0	0	0	0	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	1.00	0.00
John Maine	1	0	0	0	0	0	1.0	1	0	0	1	0	0.00	0.0	2.00	0.00
Totals	157	0	32	15	43	73	542.2	483	198	52	174	485	8.04	0.0	1.21	3.28

Mets 2009 Bullpen
NAME	GP	GS	W	L	Sv	Hld	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	K/9	P/GS	WHIP	ERA
P. Feliciano	36	0	2	2	0	11	27.2	20	8	4	5	26	8.46	0.0	0.90	2.60
Bobby Parnell	33	0	2	2	0	11	26.1	32	9	1	11	22	7.52	0.0	1.63	3.08
F. Rodriguez	31	0	1	1	17	0	32.1	17	2	1	15	35	9.74	0.0	0.99	0.56
J.J. Putz	29	0	1	4	2	10	29.1	29	17	1	19	19	5.83	0.0	1.64	5.22
Sean Green	29	0	1	2	0	4	29.1	27	15	3	13	24	7.36	0.0	1.36	4.60
Brian Stokes	23	0	1	2	0	1	25.0	28	10	2	7	12	4.32	0.0	1.40	3.60
Ken Takahashi	14	0	0	1	0	0	17.0	15	6	2	8	12	6.35	0.0	1.35	3.18
Darren O'Day†	4	0	0	0	0	0	3.0	5	0	0	1	2	6.00	0.0	2.00	0.00
Casey Fossum	3	0	0	0	0	0	4.0	4	1	0	4	3	6.75	0.0	2.00	2.25
Jon Switzer	2	0	0	0	0	0	2.0	3	3	1	2	0	0.00	0.0	2.50	13.50
F. Nieve	1	0	0	0	0	0	2.0	1	0	0	0	2	9.00	0.0	0.50	0.00
Totals	62	0	8	14	19	37	198.0	181	71	15	85	157	7.14	0.0	1.34	3.23

National League Team Bullpen Stats: 2009
RK	TEAM	GP	W	L	ERA	Sv	CG	SHO	IP	QS	ER	R	BB	SO	BAA
1	Washington	61	5	23	5.65	10	0	0	204.0	0	128	138	114	150	.283
2	NY Mets	62	8	14	3.23	19	0	0	198.0	0	71	87	85	157	.241
3	Pittsburgh	62	10	12	3.95	17	0	0	177.2	0	78	82	106	120	.246
4	Chicago Cubs	60	9	11	4.26	14	0	0	175.1	0	83	86	108	162	.234
5	Houston	63	12	11	4.15	14	0	0	221.0	0	102	110	104	184	.265
6	Philadelphia	62	14	11	3.72	18	0	0	220.0	0	91	99	113	188	.236
7	San Diego	63	11	10	3.90	19	0	0	216.2	0	94	104	101	171	.263
8	Colorado	62	6	10	4.89	16	0	0	187.2	0	102	108	59	150	.290
9	Atlanta	63	9	9	4.20	13	0	0	197.1	0	92	105	99	173	.272
10	San Francisco	60	8	9	3.48	17	0	0	186.0	0	72	78	85	149	.249
RK	TEAM	GP	W	L	ERA	Sv	CG	SHO	IP	QS	ER	R	BB	SO	BAA
11	Florida	65	14	9	4.13	14	0	0	226.2	0	104	117	121	220	.251
12	Milwaukee	65	14	8	3.48	22	0	0	209.2	0	81	84	89	185	.215
13	Arizona	64	10	8	4.88	17	0	0	208.1	0	113	123	84	173	.275
14	Cincinnati	61	7	7	3.38	17	0	0	197.0	0	74	79	96	155	.238
15	LA Dodgers	65	19	7	3.36	20	0	0	224.2	0	84	87	97	188	.231
16	St. Louis	63	8	7	4.13	19	0	0	189.2	0	87	93	82	155	.226
LEAGUE AVERAGES		GP	W	L	ERA	Sv	CG	SHO	IP	QS	ER	R	BB	SO	BAA
American League		63	10	10	4.28	15	0	0	198	0	94	102	89	164	.254
National League		63	10	10	4.05	17	0	0	202	0	91	99	96	168	.251
Major League Baseball		63	10	10	4.16	16	0	0	200	0	93	100	93	166	.252

Ian Snell Says Mets had Pirates Signs

Interesting:

"They hit some good pitches. I found out later they had our signs," said Snell, who lost for the fifth time in seven starts.

"That's baseball -- there's nothing wrong with it."Snell said he thinks David Wright may have had the signs when he fouled off a couple of good pitches in the fourth inning, when New York scored three times to take a 3-2 lead.

"Like he was expecting them," Snell said.

I personally think it's an excuse, especially as the Mets didn't hit Snell all that well until they'd been through the order. Then again, he doesn't sound particularly upset by it all, which makes his comments even more peculiar.

The full recap can be found here.

Jose Reyes Not an All-Star?

In what world does Miguel Tejada make the All-Star team over Jose Reyes? It's not like the Astros don't have another All-Star rep, they do, so there must be some other compelling reason.

Maybe Tejada is one of those honest, great guys, who never cheats and plays the game with a passion, so the fans and players love him? Ummmm, no.

Then what is it? Does he have an edge over Reyes in some statistical categories?

Let's look at the NL shortstops:

Player	Team		GP	GS	AVG	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB	BB	SO	SB	CS	SH	SF	OBP	SLG	OPS
Ramirez	FLA		86	86	.302	344	75	104	17	3	21	43	190	44	77	21	5	0	3	.386	.552	0.938
Reyes	NYM		85	85	.294	361	63	106	21	10	9	38	174	36	47	29	9	2	3	.355	.482	0.837
Tejada	HOU		87	86	.282	348	58	98	20	2	10	44	152	16	42	6	3	0	2	.319	.437	0.756
Guzman	WAS		86	86	.315	375	50	118	25	2	5	27	162	14	29	3	3	1	1	.342	.432	0.774
Theriot	CHC		80	76	.308	315	47	97	12	1	1	23	114	39	30	15	8	1	1	.387	.362	0.749
Drew	ARI		82	77	.256	313	45	80	19	5	12	30	145	17	54	2	1	2	3	.293	.463	0.756
Escobar	ATL		79	76	.289	311	44	90	11	1	6	30	121	36	41	2	4	3	1	.362	.389	0.751
Rollins	PHI		64	60	.267	258	37	69	18	4	6	29	113	24	25	19	0	2	0	.332	.438	0.770
Hardy	MIL		75	73	.289	277	35	80	19	0	10	34	129	29	40	2	1	3	1	.355	.466	0.821

Well, that's strange....Reyes has a higher batting average, more runs, more hits, more doubles, more triples, more stolen bases, a higher OBP, higher Slg% and a higher OPS...and it's not close. In the two categories that Tejada does have an edge, he has one more homerun and 6 more RBIs despite batting in a run producing spot in the order.

Reyes, in fact, leads MLB in triples, is 5th in Runs, 6th in Stolen Bases and 7th in Hits... in all of baseball. He is not an All-Star.

When someone figures this out, please let me know...also, please check Tejada's briefcase out for incriminating photos of Clint Hurdle watching a gladiator movie with a batboy.